* Singapore's tax on high-rollers much lower than Macau's
* Impact on Malaysia's Genting Highlands will be temporary
* Singaporeans may travel to Genting because of entry fee
By Candida Ng and Kevin Lim
SINGAPORE, May 27 (Reuters) - Singapore's two upcoming casinos may draw some business from neighbouring Malaysia's Genting Highlands but the city-state's focus on high-rollers will likely have a greater impact on Macau and Australia.
When up and running next year, Sheldon Adelson's Marina Bay Sands and the Malaysian Genting group's Resorts World at Sentosa will pay an effective tax of around 12 percent on net revenue from high-rollers -- compared with 39 percent for Macau -- giving operators more incentive to draw such people to the city-state.
Macau, which has 31 casinos, derives more than 60 percent of casino revenue from wealthy gamblers. Australia's larger casinos, such as Melbourne's Crown and Perth's Burswood, derive about 20 percent from VIP customers and have a large Asian clientele.
"Potentially in the VIP -- or higher-end, more premium player segment -- Singapore could have a competitive impact," said Danny Goldberg, an analyst at Select Equities in Sydney.
Companies with casinos in Macau include Melco Crown, which is part owned by Australia's Crown Ltd, Macau gaming mogul Stanley Ho's SJM Holdings, U.S.-based Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts, and Hong Kong's Galaxy Entertainment Group.
Crown owns the Crown and Burswood casinos in Australia.
Australia's effective tax rate -- a combination of gaming and sales taxes -- is between 8 and 15 percent for high-rollers, depending on where the casino is located, but the country loses out to Singapore by being further away from East Asia.
Edward Ong, a Malaysia-based analyst with Macquarie Research, estimated that high-rollers constitute a $10 billion-a-year market for Asian casinos in revenue terms. Singapore can easily capture 5 to 10 percent of the region's VIP market, he added.
Singapore legalised casino gaming in 2005 as part of an ambitious plan to make it a more exciting tourism destination and double annual visitor arrivals to 17 million by 2015.
The first casino, Las Vegas Sands' Marina Bay Sands, is due to open at the end of this year, while Genting's Resorts World at Sentosa will be ready by mid-2010.
To encourage casino operators to focus on big-time gamblers, the city-state will impose a lower tax of 5 percent on net revenue from high-rollers compared with 15 percent for the mass market. The Singapore casinos also have to pay a 7 percent goods and services tax on net revenue from casino gaming.
Resorts World will also host Southeast Asia's first Universal Studios, while the casinos will have restaurants helmed by celebrity chefs such as Charlie Trotter and Tetsuya Wakuda to appeal to well-heeled tourists as well as gamblers.
UNTAPPED DEMAND
On competition with Malaysia, analysts said the impact on Genting Highlands will be minimal since it does not focus on high-rollers and depends on locals for more than 70 percent of its business. Singaporean visitors account for about 20 percent of the clientele at Genting Highlands, which is owned by Genting.
"You're not going to see Malaysians, who generally go out on a day trip to gamble, go over to Singapore to do the same thing," said Malaysia's RHB, although it added the city-state may attract people initially with the novelty of visiting a new casino.
Singapore's plan to impose a S$100 daily ($69) entry fee on citizens visiting local casinos will push some residents to journey to Genting. However, a Malaysian ban on its Muslim citizens entering Genting casino will drive some to Singapore.
Jonathan Galaviz, a partner at Las Vegas-based consultancy Globalysis, said overall Singapore's upcoming casinos will help grow Asia's gaming market rather than cannabalise it.
"There continues to be a massive undersupply of casino entertainment options in Asia and it will be a very long time before the full demand is met," he said. ($1=1.445 Singapore Dollar) (Editing by Lincoln Feast)